


Cancelled

by literati42



Category: The Good Cop (TV)
Genre: Epic Friendship, F/M, Fluff and Humor, Found Family, Friendship, almost too meta to function
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-14
Updated: 2018-11-14
Packaged: 2019-08-23 12:34:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16619057
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/literati42/pseuds/literati42
Summary: On a stake out, Ryan has some thoughts that leave TJ, Cora, and Burl with plenty of questions





	Cancelled

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this because I found out the show was canceled tonight. I'm bummed because the show was beautiful, but I'm doubly bummed because I love the little community that has formed around this show.  
> I am still here to fan this show, and don't worry. More stories are coming!

TJ stared through the binoculars at the suspect's house. He lowered them and glanced at Cora in the seat beside him, head her head tilted slightly as she watched the street around them. “What?” she said, looking up.  
“What what?”  
“You were staring.”  
“I wasn’t staring.” The phone ringing interrupted whatever Cora was going to say. TJ saw Ryan’s name light up on his screen and answered it, clicking it on speaker. “Do you have something?” The young tech was on the adjacent street, keeping a watch alongside Burl.  
“No, Lieutenant. I am letting you know nothing is happening.”  
“Ryan, why are you calling to say nothing is happening?”  
“Because he is bored and also, insufferable,” Burl replied. “If we are still here when it turns 6, I will leave him in this squad car and come back for him tomorrow.” Cora laughed, and TJ shot her a look.  
“Don’t encourage them,” he said quietly, then louder, “Stay focused you two.”  
“Lieutenant?”  
“Yes, Ryan?”  
“Do you ever wonder what it would be like if we were just characters in a TV show?” The dead silence that met this, as usual, did nothing to deter Ryan. He gasped, “What if we are a TV show and we get canceled! Do we cease to exist?”  
“Maybe we could use Ryan to lure out the murderer?” Burl said.  
“I am hanging up now.”  
“Wait…what would you do if tomorrow this all just ended? Like, how would you end your series finale?”  
TJ clicked the phone off, shaking his head.  
“It’s a good question,” Cora said. He looked over at her.  
“Cora…no it’s not.”  
“Not the TV thing.” She dismissed this with a wave of the hand. “I mean the core of the question. What would you do if you knew everything was going to end tomorrow?”  
I would kiss you. The thought appeared in his mind before he had a chance to see it coming. He looked away from her quickly. “It isn’t like that though. People in shows do whatever they want, they don’t have to face the consequences of their actions because the show is over. We get to go out on their high note, but real life, there is a cost.”  
“Has anyone ever told you, you can suck the fun out of truly any solitary thing?”  
TJ tilted his head to the side, not able to refute the claim. “The thing is, we don’t know. We don’t know when our story comes to an end, and we don’t know when the stories of people around us are coming to an end.” TJ felt a painful jolt in his heart as thoughts of his mother struck him. “We just can’t know.”  
Cora leaned back on the car’s headrest and tilted her face toward him, watching. Something in her eyes told him she knew what he was thinking. “So maybe we should live all the time like this could end tomorrow.”  
“Or maybe we never should.”  
TJ’s phone rang again, “This better not be about the TV show idea.”  
“I would get a dog. Even though I have allergies and would lose my lease, but you see it wouldn’t matter because it was all ending, so I would definitely get a dog.” TJ hung up again.  
“What would you do then?” he asked Cora. She looked at him. For a second he thought he saw something like surprise flicker in her eyes, and then embarrassment? She looked away from him quickly.  
“No idea,” she said, but he knew somehow that she did know. He wondered, if he could figure out what she was thinking in that moment, would it unlock this enigma of a woman beside him? Or would he still not understand?  
Cora’s phone rang now. “Ryan, you’ve got to be kidding me.”  
“If I knew we were getting canceled, I’d want to spend the day with all of you.”  
“Don’t call again unless it’s about the case,” she said, but there was warmth at the edges of her words.  
“Big dysfunctional family, right?” Ryan said.  
Cora met TJ’s eyes, “Right.”  
Before she hung up, she heard Ryan add, “Even if our show gets canceled.”


End file.
